Chuck Versus the Couch Lock
Chuck Versus the Couch Lock is the fifth episode of the fourth season of Chuck, which aired on the 18th of October, 2010. Synopsis Chuck's latest mission provides a link to Casey's past and possibly to Chuck's mom. When Colonel Casey's former team during the Clinton era returns looking for him, Chuck must decide what he's willing to sacrifice in order to find his mom. Elsewhere, Morgan works up the courage to tell Casey he is dating his daughter, Alex. Full Plot Main Story In 1999, in the Zargos Mountains of Iran, Packard (Roberts), a special weapons expert, T.I. (Bautista), a hand-to-hand combat expert, MacKintosh (Moore), an electronics expert, and Casey, a tactical expert, plant charges to seal a safe full of gold used to fund terrorists. The team tries to steal the gold, figuring that it be better if they retired young, but Casey, determined to fulfill their orders, incapacitates them. He seals the vault, which can only be opened with his handprint identification, and drags his team back to base to have them court martialed. These men promptly escape from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground, and at some point they become involved with Volkoff Industries. In 2010, Team Bartowski go through files received from Premier Allejandro Goya of Costa Gravas that detail all his dealings with Volkoff Industries. Chuck searches for a prisoner codenamed "Frost" (his mother Mary Bartowski), leading him to a picture of Casey's old unit. He flashes on the picture, and Casey reveals to them what happened in 1999. Casey reveals that the only time the team would come together again would be at his funeral, to use his handprint to access the gold. Casey is administered a dose of modified tetrodotoxin that slows his breathing and heart rate; although he appears dead, he is alive and conscious, although paralyzed. Due to Casey's vast exposure to drugs such as tranquilizers and truth serums throughout his career, Chuck gives Casey an additional hypodermic needle to use if the drug wears off. Chuck and Sarah, along with planted CIA agents, wait for Casey's former team to arrive while Morgan prepares the eulogy. MacKintosh is the first to arrive at Casey's military funeral. Uncertain if Casey is dead, he tests Casey by puncturing his hand with an American flag pin. As Morgan Grimes delivers the eulogy, T.I. arrives and puts out a cigar on Casey's hand. Packard then arrives and appears to be crying. He turns around laughing and aims a gun at the agents, and he is soon joined by MacKintosh and T.I. After detonating an explosive to distract the agents, Packard blows charges under the floor, and the team escapes through a tunnel with Casey's body. They remove Casey's tracker and prepare to remove his hand with a surgical saw, but a pizza delivery distracts them. Casey starts to crawl to safety, dropping his wallet and the hypodermic needle. When his old team returns, he fights them off and escapes through a window, but is injected with the additional needle in the process. Casey calls the Nerd Herd on his cell phone, and gives them his location before losing consciousness in a dumpster. Jeff Barnes and Lester Patel, the former of which answered the call, pick Casey up and drop him off at Morgan's apartment. Meanwhile, Chuck and Sarah track Casey's phone to the dumpster where he left it. They enter the building where Casey was being held, but Chuck triggers a laser sensor that will detonate if he moves away from it. Sarah crawls under the lasers and begins disarming the explosive, ignoring Chuck's pleas to save herself. Packard disarms it remotely; he and MacKintosh kidnap Chuck and Sarah as bait for Casey. At his apartment, Morgan encounters T.I., who informs him that they will kill Chuck and Sarah if Casey doesn't arrive at the vault in Iran. With advice from Devon, Morgan is able to free Casey from his "couch lock", by telling him his dating his daughter and making him angry. Morgan and Casey travel to Iran, where, since there is no longer an American presence, they will not be rescued should they fail. They break into the control box of the bunker where Chuck and Sarah are being held, and hack into the security feed. Casey goes inside the bunker, ordering Morgan to cut the power when signaled, so he could defeat his old team a second time. Meanwhile, Chuck learns that Frost was not a prisoner of Volkoff, but his "right hand". MacKintosh reveals that Volkoff sends her to make his problems disappear. Casey enters and is disarmed, but gives Morgan the signal to cut the power. Morgan is only able to pump water through a broken pipe and Casey is forced to open the vault before being chained with Chuck and Sarah. To make sure Casey is alone, MacKintosh fires a random shot through the door, which gives Morgan a flesh wound on the arm. Casey attempts to bluff, but Morgan quickly surrenders. When Packard, T.I., and MacKintosh enter the vault, Morgan grabs a power cord and electrocutes them and himself through the water on the ground. Although he goes into cardiac arrest, becoming practically dead for three seconds, Team Bartowski manages to bring him back, and they return to the United States. Afterwards, Chuck tells Sarah that he has decided to end his search for his mother, as he has ignored everyone who would never leave him in search of the one person who left him. Immediately afterwards, he receives a phone call from his mother. Morgan and Alex Morgan has waited to reveal to Casey that he is dating Casey's daughter Alex because his fear of Casey's reaction to the new; Chuck comments that he might kill him "accidentally". However, Alex visits Morgan at the Buy More and begs him to be tell Casey the truth. When Morgan delivers the eulogy at Casey's funeral, he sees it as an opportunity to tell Casey the truth. However, he hesitates, and Casey is taken by his old team. Later, Alex arrives at Morgan's apartment, where he reveals that he never actually told Casey the truth. She asks to come in, but Morgan doesn't want her to see her father in a "couch lock" (see main plot). When Morgan sees T.I. approaching, he asks Alex to leave and she breaks up with him. Taking advice from Captain Awesome (and failing to slap him, which he comments is like slapping a car), Morgan tells Casey about his relationship with Alex, raising Casey's blood pressure and waking him from his paralysis. He grabs Morgan by the throat and lifts him off the ground, threatening to kill him; although he refuses to allow the relationship to continue and stops being Morgan's "friend," they still must work together to save Sarah and Chuck. Casey tells Alex that he told Morgan to dump her, but Morgan stood up to him. Alex reveals this to Morgan at a party he throws to prove to Casey that he would have friends at his real funeral. Morgan and Alex reconcile, and Casey changes his mind and approves of their relationship, although he cautions Morgan not to break Alex's heart, lest he break Morgan's "everything." Chuck and Ellie After revealing his search for their mother to Ellie in "Chuck Versus the Coup d'Etat", Chuck feels pressured to finish the search quickly. Later, Ellie and Devon learn that their unborn child is a girl. When they come to Chuck and Morgan's apartment with champagne to celebrate, Ellie reveals that she now approves of his search for their mother. Guest Stars * Mekenna Melvin as Alex McHugh * Eric Roberts as Packard * Dave Batista as T.I. * Joel Moore as MacKintosh Quotes *'Morgan:' "Okay. Think Morgan. How do I get him angry? How do I get him an—? Oh crap!" (Morgan sighs) "Okay, Casey, I know you can hear me. And I have something very important to tell you. I've been dating your daughter. Yeah, yeah. We're technically on the rocks right now kind of. But you know, things we're getting pretty serious. Hol – holding hands and uh, kissing was just out of control. But I've been a perfect gentlemen. Although, it definitely felt like pretty soon", (Morgan gulps) "she'd be spending the night." *'Casey:' (To Morgan about Alex) "You break her heart, I break your everything." Trivia MacKintosh's stabbing Casey with the flag pin and TI's extinguishing the cigar on Casey's wrist are homages to the funeral scene in the 1963 movie "Charade" (A. Hepburn; Cary Grant). Bloopers * After Chuck signals Morgan to start the eulogy, it's clearly visible that only MacKintosh had entered the church till then. However, once Morgan says "please be seated", T.I. is seen sitting right behind Chuck in that scene, even though he hasn't entered the church yet. Deleted scenes The Season 4 DVD contains the following deleted scenes from this episode: * Jeff and Lester trying to help Casey recover from his "couchlock" using non-orthodox methods. * Ellie asking Devon to be more discrete about their pregnancy, right before Morgan calls Devon to ask for advice on waking Casey up. Music *Time Again – "Day Like This" *Daniel May – "On Sale Now" *Oingo Boingo – "Dead Man's Party" *Mates of State – "Second Hand News" *Billy Martin – "Shop Till You Drop" Category:Season 4 Television Series Episodes